History TabletopGame / Lancer

* CapitalismIsBad: The three [[MegaCorp Corpostates]] are effectively the last major bastions of capitalism in the post scarcity society of Union, and they do not paint a pretty picture of it as a whole. Harrison Armory is TheRemnant of Seccom, being founded by war criminals who have since become [[EvilColonialist ruthless colonialists]] who run the worlds they conquer [[OneNationUnderCopyright like their own personal fiefdoms while brutally suppressing the populace]]. Smith-Shimano Corporation are similar, while also being extreme eugenicists who forcibly settle people on [[DeathWorld Death Worlds]] to see if they develop beneficial mutations that can be sold as gene mods. They [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial have to clarify in their marketing that they don't actually]] [[HumanTraffickers sell the people themselves too]]. ISP-N is ALighterShadeOfBlack, since, being a trade company, they only occupy one world and mainly focus on shipping and trade while "only" exerting influence on worlds to adopt policies that are in their interest rather than essentially ruling over them. They also dedicate a fair amount of time to hunting pirates, who are among the most common threats to the average Union world anyway, even cooperating with Albatross to do so. However, this is still pure PragmaticVillainy. They only care about their profit margins and are also known to behave similarly to the pirates they fight should it suit them. They're effectively a [[RecycledInSpace space version]] of the East India Trading Company.

** Zigzagged. While Union insists on referring to it as "Cradle," the Karrakin Trade Baronies and Aunic peoples each claim to be the true heirs of Humanity, and refer to their ancestral home as Earth.

* PostScarcityEconomy: As a part of Union's mission statement to ensure humanity's long term survival, one of its core tenets is to make sure everyone's basic needs are met. Food, water, shelter and fair work is available everywhere the Omninet is available.

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Played with. Union decided as part of their utopic ideals that human dignity and life should always be upheld... but this was before Union discovered non-human sapient life in the form of [[DeusEstMachina RA]] and Deimos Entities. In light of this, they were forced to acknowledge the latter entities as Non-Human Persons, [=NHPs=]. Unfortunately, [=NHPs=] are sufficiently alien beings that they cannot exist in a natural state with humans - all [=NHPs=] need to have their true potential be intensely limited and for them to undergo social conditioning so as to be able to interact with humans and for them to stay limited. The entire process is complicated by the alien nature of [=NHPs=], but suffice to say it is extremely controversial in and out of universe.

* The Aun Ascendency is divided on this. Most consider Aun'Ist, their capital and most holy site, to be the origin of their culture and heritage. Some posit that Earth fits that criteria since it's where they originally came from.

** The ''No Room for a Wallflower'' supplement explains that the matter was much more complicated: [[spoiler:Egregorians were fully sapient beings - they had a collective memory, but were individually intelligent like humans. They originally interacted peacefully with human colonists, but they were divided in multiple nations that were in conflict. One such nation accidentally contracted cholera from the human settlers, and was attacked by a coalition of its rivals, which drew the humans into the conflict. The Second Committee didn't realize this, and approved the use of Total Biome Kill weapons on the planet to kill all of the Egregorians, even the ones which had fought to defend the humans.]]

* DeathIsCheap: Zig-zagged. Advancements in cloning technology allows for the growth of a new body to be quite easy, but [[GrandTheftMe overriding their]] [[ClonesArePeopleToo subjectivity]] with a imprint of the recently deceased's memories can be complicated, expensive, and even illegal when flash cloning is involved.

* FlingALightIntoTheFuture: ''The Ten'' were a series of massive generation ships that were sent out at sub-light speeds to establish colonies on worlds able to sustain them, as a last ditch effort by Old Humanity to avoid total extinction.
* GenerationShips: The standard space ship model Old Humanity used for colonies prior to its collapse. Due to advancements (or rediscoveries) in technology by Union, however, this led to the problem that later colony ships with faster speed could reach and colonize planets before earlier ships, despite ''launching millennia after''. The ensuing conflicts of who owns what planet are noted to be fairly terrible, and are directly responsible for the Aunic people's hatred of Union.

* GoodRepublicEvilEmpire: Union's Central Committee is a republican hegemony that connects thousands of worlds. The Karrakin Trade Baronies is a federation of dynastic monarchies that maintain rigid class hierarchies between the noble and ignoble citizens and is known to flaunt the Utopian Pillars regarding rules against serfdom. Harrison Armory runs a Corporate Dictatorship, being intellectual descendants of the imperial Second Committee. Unusually, both KTB and HA have to answer to the Central Committee, and try to keep their more evil tendencies out of the Central Committee's eye to prevent a confrontation that could end with another Union civil war.
* GreyGoo: Called "greywash" in-universe and used in starship munitions that slowly eat away at enemy ships, while HORUS' Balor mech chassis is largely made of it, it usually doesn't have reproductive capabilities so the spread is limited. Ships can also be equipped with "whitewash" nanites designed to counter greywash.

* MultipleLifeBars: All player character mechs (and some EliteMooks and boss-like entities) have Structure and Stress, which represent life bars for Hit Points and Heat respectively. Falling to zero hitpoints or going over heat cap will reduce the corresponding value by one, with surplus damage/Heat overflowing into the new bar. Every lost point also forces a dice roll for an additional negative effect, such as a negative condition on their next turn, SubsystemDamage, or (worst-case scenario) destroying the mech/triggering a meltdown. The last of these cannot happen for the first point of each lost, but is fair game for all subsequent losses if one is unlucky.

** The original inhabitants of Hercynia, the Egregorians, were bug-like aliens. The human-supremacist Second Committee did not hesitate in approving for their genocide - this was one of the factors that led to them being overthrown. The ''No Room for a Wallflower'' supplement further clarifies that [[spoiler:Egregorians were fully sapient and intelligent beings, and essentially people not too different from humans in mentality - the survivors are understandably upset at what the Second Committee did to them, but not to such an extent that peace is completely, absolutely impossible. One possible ending for the supplement is that the Egregorians end up fully acknowledged as [=NHPs=], and obtain full rights to their planet, allowing them to explore the rest of the universe if they so choose as part of Union.]]

* MatterReplicator: Downplayed. Printing technology in the setting is essentially [=3D=] printing on crack, and explicitly doesn't adhere to normal physics, but it still has its limitations such that they're not magic create-anything machines.

* EnforcedTechnologyLevels: There is a Union-wide ban on research into [[BrainUploading decorporation]] ('decorp') technology in place because RA dictated it to them after its [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse pointed show of force]] on Mars. If anyone ''does'' try to flout this rule by seeking digital immortality, [[DoNotTauntCthulhu RA has been known to intervene directly]].

* EasyLogistics: Zigzagged. Even with [[MatterReplicator Printers]], post-scarcity doesn't mean post-need.

** WordOfGod states the primary influence was ''VideoGame/{{Titanfall}}'', and it shows best in the basic mecha designs ('clunky' and patterned after infantry rather than super robots or Gundam-styled bots with a distinct blocky sci-fi aesthetic) and an emphasis on mech ''and'' pilot combat. Several of the mechs are directly based on their ''Titanfall'' equivalents as well; the Genghis shares the general shape and flame-based role of the Scorch, for example, and the Metalmark is a mashup of the Ronin and Northstar (spindly samurai sphere robot).

* CloningBlues[=/=]ClonesArePeopleToo: The setting features several kinds of clones. The typical, 'facsimile' clone is genetically identical to the donor, and is in all senses their own person, someone that grows at the same rate as a normal human. Meanwhile, "flash" clones are grown in [[UterineReplicator artificial birthing chambers]] and have their growth accelerated so they mature to adulthood in around 5 years, and the process is noted to be [[CloneDegeneration traumatic and error-prone]]. Further complicating the matter is that it's possible (though ill-advised) to do 'whole-subjectivity' clones, implanting a clone with accumulated memories of the original donor.
** During the Second Committee of Union, clones were typically used as slaves for mass labor or [[CloneArmy military use]], and were not considered people in their own right. In the current day, facsimile clones are legally allowed only with informed consent; most other types of cloning are highly illegal.

''Lancer'' was successfully [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/massifpress/lancer/ Kickstarted in May 2019]] after making nearly 10 times its Kickstarter goal. The Core Rule Book was fully released in late November and continues to be updated with errata. More supplementary materials have been released periodically, including: "The Long Rim," detailing a lawless region of space and an alternate leveling system based on currency; "No Room For a Wallflower, Solstice Rain, and Dustgrave" as campaign modules; "The Karrakin Trade Baronies," detailing a region of Union governed by feudal houses, and “Legionnaire”, a supplement discussing the eldritch artificial intelligences known as NHPs. A starship-based spinoff called [[https://app.playrole.com/games/lancer-battlegroup/ Battlegroup]] has also been released on Role.

''Lancer'' was successfully [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/massifpress/lancer/ Kickstarted in May 2019]] after making nearly 10 times its Kickstarter goal. The Core Rule Book was fully released in late November and continues to be updated with errata. More supplementary materials have been released periodically, including: "The Long Rim," detailing a lawless region of space and an alternate leveling system based on currency; "No Room For a Wallflower," a campaign module; and "The Karrakin Trade Baronies," detailing a region of Union governed by feudal houses. A starship-based spinoff called [[https://app.playrole.com/games/lancer-battlegroup/ Battlegroup]] has also been released on Role.

** WordOfGod states the primary influence was ''VideoGame/{{Titanfall}}'', and it shows best in the basic mecha designs ('clunky' and patterned after infantry rather than super robots or Gundam-styled bots with a distinct blocky sci-fi aesthetic) and an emphasis on mech ''and'' pilot combat. Several of the mechs are directly based on their ''Titanfall'' equivalents as well; the Genghis shares the general shape and flame-based role of the Scorch, for example.

* SurrealHorror: A lot of the flavor text associated with [=NHPs=] dips into this, with many examples of dreamlike, stream-of-consciousness rambling that is vaguely threatening to the reader.

** IPS-N names their designs after naval commanders and other aspects of '''marine''' history (e.g. Nelson, Tortuga).

** WordOfGod states the primary influence was ''VideoGame/{{Titanfall}}'', and it shows best in the basic mecha designs ('clunky' and patterned after infantry rather than super robots or Gundam-styled bots with a distinct blocky sci-fi aesthetic) and an emphasis on mech ''and'' pilot combat.

* TheAestheticsOfTechnology: Originating from civilian shipping firms, [=IPS-Northstar=] mechs have a very UsedFuture look to them, with technology that is straightforward and easy to understand. Harrison Armoury looks very militarized, with sharp, boxy edges, a plethora of laser weapons, and highly advanced core abilities. The fabulously wealthy Smith-Shimano Corpro has a more stylized, artsy appearance, [[CrystalSpiresAndTogas with soft edges, bright colors and even flowing ribbons of silk for decoration]] -- their mechs are {{Impossibly Graceful Giant}}s, on top of having advanced tech on par with Harrison. HORUS mechs, designed by [[DeusEstMachina RA]], are appropriately chaotic-looking and strange, and wield technology so absurdly advanced that it can [[RealityWarper re-order reality itself]].